Setting resource rates

Table of contents

You must configure rates for all resources, even if that rate is 0 (for showback purposes). Because rates typically change over time, rate information is organized based on the range of dates that the rate is active. During the charge step, Cloud Cruiser selects the correct date range based on the resource’s usage date and charges the rates configured for that range.

You can set multiple date ranges for a resource to define rates that change over time by scheduling rate changes for an effective date in the future.

If you have a requirement to set different rates for sets of customers, see Managing rate plans.

You cannot retroactively change rates for resources that have already been charged. You must issue credit instead.

To set or modify a resource rate

Go to Billing > Services and select a resource in the resources list to open the resource panel. If you are creating a new resource, you will have access to this panel after clicking OK in the initial Create new resource pane.

Click Rates to access the rate configuration parameters. Each rate you set is associated with a date range, or resource revision.

To the right of the Range field, click the ‘+’ icon and enter the start date.The end date will be automatically set to the highest possible system date (12/31/2999). You can delete a date range and its associated rate information by clicking on the minus (-) icon. If you plan to set more rates, you can change this to the end period of the rates you are about to configure. If you are not sure, leave the date as-is; it will be automatically adjusted when more rate date ranges are added later.You can set multiple date ranges to create rate revisions for the resource, as long as the dates do not overlap. For more information, see Working with resource date ranges.

Select a rate type from the Type menu, then set the rate options according to the instructions for that type:

Basic offers uniform pricing for all usage. For instructions, see Basic rates.

Tier allows different rates for usage in different ranges. For instructions, see Tier rates.

State offers different rates based on whether the resource exists in a unique state, like offline or inactive. For instructions, see State rates.

If this is an allocated resource, select the interval for which the rates apply from the Charge Interval menu. You can choose Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.

(optional) If the resource is collected in units different from the Units Description you set, use the Operator menu to specify a standard arithmetic operation to convert the resource value to the correct units. Choose an operation of mult (multiply) or div (divide) and an operand on which to perform it before applying the rate. For example, if a resource was collected in megabytes (MB) but you want to load it as gigabytes (GB), choose div and enter an operand of 1,024.

Click Save.

Basic rates

With a Basic rate, all usage is charged equally. You have the following options:

Field

Description

Variable

Specifies that the amount charged is directly proportional to the amount consumed. For example, a user can be charged $0.05 per MB of storage consumed.

Fixed

Specifies that the amount is added to the running total for a resource exactly once, when the first occurrence is found during the charging process. Subsequent occurrences of the usage of that resource by the same account are not charged the fixed rate.

Comments

Provides an area for notes and more detail for the rate.

User Data 1, 2

Optional values that are not used by Cloud Cruiser. These can be used by custom versions of reports for sorting and grouping in reports.

Tier rates

With tiers, you can charge different rates for usage in different ranges. You do this in a grid where you can enter ranges for usage and set a variable and/or fixed rate at each level in the tier.

For example, consider the following tier grid for a resource called OS Disk that is measuring storage units in GBs:

Tier

Low

High

Description

1

100

Level 1

2

100

500

Level 2

3

500

Level 3

Suppose we set the following rates for each tier:

Tier 1: variable rate of .0102

Tier 2: variable rate of .0129

Tier 3: variable rate of .0195

Then after running the report, we get the following output:

If 930 GBs was consumed during this reporting period, the first 100 GB is charged .0102 USD (or your currency) per unit, the next 400 GB is charged .0129 USD per unit and the final 430 GB is charged .0195 USD per unit. Therefore, the subtotal is (100 x .0102) + (400 x .0129) + (430 x .03) for a total cost of 14.56 USD.

Tier values cannot overlap.

State rates

A state rate defines different charge values for a resource when it has started, has stopped, or is in sleep or hibernated modes. In the Resource Rates area, if you select a rate type of State from the Type drop-down menu, by default, it shows state grid options for ONLINE and OFFLINE.

You can modify or delete these default options and add more in the Resource States setup page. For more information, see.

For example, consider the following state grid for a resource that is measuring VM usage in hours and their variable and fixed rates for each state:

State

Variable

ONLINE

2

OFFLINE

0

If the VM is ONLINE, the charge is 5 USD to access it and 2 USD for every hour. If the VM is OFFLINE, there is a zero USD charge.